We were never going to go far with this D-Core

[Beyonder91]

Let's be honest... We had 2 borderline AHL d-men in Holl/Ceci and 2 average at best defensively in Rielly/Barrie playing.
Muzzin is our only solid defender.

Dubas "big" defence additions Barrie/Ceci were an utter disaster. Couldn't have picked 2 worse guys for the money they got paid.

Click to read more...

 

[2 Slick]

Yep.

The one silver lining is Barrie and Ceci are guaranteed not to be back with the Leafs.

Unfortunately we still have Holl and Marincin.

This team will be trash until they shore up their defense. Can't win your way through the season and post-season with only offense and average goaltending.

 

[Once]

Dubas is emotionally attached to players like Holl and Marty. No way they leave with Dubas at helm.

 

[gordonshumway]

We can crap on the D but it wasn't as terrible as I expected. The offence is what lost Leafs the series. Save for game 2 and last few minutes of game 4, they weren't the x-factor they were supposed to be. We lost to a team that has ONE playoff series win in their franchise history... let that sink in.

 

[Plat87]

Yup and I hope management finally gets it after another early exit.

 

[wingman75]

No doubt three of these guys are borderline NHLers, but the way we play doesn't help.

We may well have the worst group of defensive wingers in the league.

That being said, for sure two of them will not be back and hopefully more.

We need smarter players.

 

[Buds17]

It's not what the forward group is, so the loss of Muzzin had more of an impact compared to the loss of Johnsson, IMO. No area of the team was capable enough tonight unfortunately. Fair to say a blueline upgrade/addition would be a prudent move.

 

[TMLegend]

Need to allocate the cap better. One of or maybe both of Nylander/Marner should be traded to rebalance the roster.

 

[Sparksrus3]

Not one of tonight’s 3 goals was the fault of the D

 

[frizzer1]

No team can win with that defense.
With Muzzin taking big minutes they had a chance against a weak opponent but once he got hurt they were done.

 

[hizzoner]

Hmm. Leafs shut out twice. Gotta do something about that defence.......

 

[LastOne2100]

Muzzin and Rielly are the only two defensemen we should see next year.

However, lucky for us, Dubas the ace GM already locked up Marincin.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Barrie (at worst) and Ceci were always a band-aid solution for this season .. The long term play is banking on Sandin and Liljegren developing into key roles.

They just need a legit top 4 RHD though in the worst way.

Rielly showed up in this playoff, he was good. Holl has played well this year and has good chemistry with Muzzin.

There's some hope on the back end.

 

[Hacketts]

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Could've traded a 3rd round pick or some shit to get an adequate enough dman to not have to watch Ceci in the playoffs. How Marincin is still in the organization speaks volumes.

 

[93LEAFS]

Barrie was a bad addition, while right-sided he didn't solve what we needed.

But, this result was more on the fact our 4 forwards eat up so much salary that we rely on inconsistent depth while trying to continually out-skill teams.

 

[Beyonder91]

Not one of tonight’s 3 goals was the fault of the D

Freddy bailed out the D countless times.
Just because terrible play didn't result in goals against doesn't mean it wasn't terrible play.
My point is that this D core would not have taken us deep.

 

[Dave92]

I'm sure that Kyle the door mat will turn 11 million dollar Marner into a top pairing Dman. That might happen.

 

[Mats13]

Winning the lottery would be amazing for us.

Getting Laf frees us up to trade Marner or Nylander for a defenceman.

 

[Menzinger]

Ceci and Barrie definitely were absolutely flops, but overall it wasn't D that cost the Leafs this series. They actually did fairly well (or the team as a whole) at limiting high danger chances against more games than not

The Leafs biggest problem this series was not controlling or even dominating the offensive side of things

 

[Beyonder91]

Hmm. Leafs shut out twice. Gotta do something about that defence.......

We had our chances. Plenty of them... The bounces didn't go our way this series.

 

[Tairy Greene]

We didnt score a goal in 2 games in a 5 game series.

 

[Lemontree]

Not one of tonight’s 3 goals was the fault of the D

Watch the 2nd goal again. Holl doesn’t read the play and makes a horrible change along with the forwards and then Marincin slowly lumbers into his zone as he was the only one who didn’t get to the bench. He freezes and lets Foudy walk out of the corner to score a weak goal but still, he doesn’t even take the passing lane away which the Leafs were lucky Foudy didn’t see the play however Freddy couldn’t make the save when it was needed.

 

[Dave92]

Freddy bailed out the D countless times.
Just because terrible play didn't result in goals against doesn't mean it was terrible play.
My point is that this D core would not have taken us deep.

He still allowed a back breaking terrible goal like he always does in game 7. But i agree there are much bigger problems with this roster.

 

[IceColdBear]

Rielly is a stud, you're off base calling him average defensively.

We definitely need an upgrade on d, though.

We have dealt this years and last years first rounders and don't have much ammo to get help in a trade and our cap situation really isn't good either.

We desperately need Sandin and Liljegren to be good, and fast.